Primarily, I'm Bored

I know as a so-called blogger that I am supposed to be in a state of primary election fever. But I'm not. As a registered Green (one of four remaining in the state), I'm left out of this process. But that's not why I fail to be excited.

To be honest, this season's ballot hardly seems to be worth changing my party affiliation over. Many races aren't contested, including my State Rep. race in District 12. Others are just plain irritating, especially the Land Commissioner's race where two good candidates decided to go against each other (Powell/Baca) instead of seeking different offices and spreading the possible goodness. Then there are races that I know I'm supposed to care about, but have a hard time caring.

Attorney General, for instance. I know it's a stepping-stone office. I know it's played an important role in everything from fighting Big Tobacco to fighting political corruption. I know JoeMonahan is frothing in politico-epileptic seizure about it. Still, the AG's race just doesn't do it for me. The only thing on the ballot I really care about is the Public Regulatory Commission seat, and that's just because I don't want Steve "D." Gallegos to get it.

As the Presidential Election of 2004 proved, not wanting somebody to win isn't reason enough to vote for most people, and I admit I'll have to include myself in the group of "most people" in this particular instance.

Still, as a blogger and one with some pretensions of political interest, I feel a bit of unease in not voting. So, here's what I'm doing instead. I'm forcing my wife at verbal gunpoint to vote. She is still a registered Democrat (and let's face it, being a registered Republican is just about as worthless as being a Green in this year's primary), and she's been wishy-washy on this whole primary washout as well. She's been considering joining the 80 or so percent in not voting. Kinda like me.

So, I'm giving her a couple of big spiels about Steve "D" Gallegos being a ex-US West employee who now wants to regulate Qwest and that other people say Stephanie Gonzalez is the "bomb" for Secretary of State. Admittedly, mere words may not work...they certainly didn't do much for me.

If the same is true with my wife, I will then move on to making threats, beginning with a doing the dishes work stoppage. This will escalate over the course of the day to neglecting to do even my typically marginal job of house cleaning, then to my final threat, loud playing of the WEEI Boston feed of tonight's Red Sox/Yankees game via MLB.com.

Ten minutes of Joe Castiglione and Jerry Trupiano describing the action tonight will have the wife at my total mercy. Previous experiments involving such broadcast played at even very, very low levels of audibility have resulted in catty remarks, eye rolling and statements like "that's so boring, it's worth than watching golf!

So, it's pretty much a lock that one of us is voting today. Still, this is a disapponting primary, despite the rah-rah attempts by bloggers and others to convince us otherwise. I guess part of my decision to stay Green was to force the Democratic Party to come up with more interesting and plentiful choices in more local/state races. Today's ballot is an indication that my staying Green has accomplished nothing in this regard, a fact I'm constantly reminded of by my Green-loathing Democrat friends. The best example of that is U.S. House #1, where nobody is running against Patricia Madrid. Why the hell not? Why is the mere introduction of a name like Madrid's into the race make her Democratic nomination a fait accompli? Where's Miles Nelson where you need him? Yeah, I know....Santa Fe .

Something bigger is needed. Perhaps I need to switch parties and become a Democrat after all. Perhaps I need to not only get involved in helping the Party, but consider running for an office such as my uncontested State Representative seat. Maybe go from there to bigger and better offices, rising through the Democratic ranks to become a important voice on issues that mean alot to us on the further side of the Left.

Or maybe I'll just stop doing the dishes and listen to baseball games really, really loud.